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In March 2007 I was on a trip to the North Lakes with Richard – staying at the Coledale Inn in Braithwaite – a superb hotel/pub with real ale (for Richard) and great food and puddings (for me;-) For a nice change the tops of the major fells were caked in snow!
Richard hates snow and so went pubbing in Keswick while I set off to tackle Skiddaw, one of my favourite peaks and ideal for winter walking.
I set off up the Jenkin Hill route – normally a boring route but, due to the snowy conditions, much more interesting. There wasn’t much snow until I got towards the top of the steep bit and then I hit the hard-frozen snow (not literally!). From there the path is pretty flat and you have a choice of sticking to the path or ascending Skiddaw Little Man – a very cute peak. I opted for the latter.
I didn’t have crampons with me so had to stamp quite hard on the steep slopes up Little Man but soon was on its small pointed summit admiring the view to Skiddaw himself. The descent to the col before Skiddaw is pretty steep and the left hand side of the fell excessively so – I wished I was the other side of the fence!
Soon I was on the col, back on the path and heading up the easy slope to Skiddaw’s south top. From there it is a scenic promenade across the half-mile ridge via the main summit and to the north top (for some reason I didn’t take any pics along here).
I then went back along the summit ridge and descended the back to Skiddaw House Youth Hostel and back through the gap between Lonscale Crags and Blencathra’s Blease Fell (what I call the Lonscale Gap).
I was hoping this bit wasn’t icy as it’s quite narrow and on a very steep fellside! The path through the gap takes you round the fell and back to the start of the Jenkin Hill path. Then it was back to the Coledale for some nice warming grub!
Last edited by mountain coward on Sat Dec 12, 2009 1:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.
